[Aztlan] Fwd: AZTLAN Post, Chicle Trail (Ron Canter)

[Dave Pentecost]

Here's the latest from Ron Canter:


      Moriarty referred to Rice's tentative finding of a canal from Laguna
Sacpuy to Laguneta Picu, and possibly another from Picu toward Lago Peten
Itza.  These are exciting possibilities.  Don't know why I never though
about a canal to little Picu.  Just because it is 2 km south of L. Sacpuy
and not directly in line on the lake chain, wouldn't rule out a canal.  I
doubt that a canal between Picu and Peten Itza (if it existed) ever went
all the way through - the difference of lake levels is too much.  But it
wouldn't have needed to.  Shortening a carry between Lakes Peten Itza and
Sacpuy would have been a big help on an east-west water trail.  If canals
cut the portage down from four km to one km or so, that would be more than
good enough.  Dugouts are heavy.  They can be dragged across a one km
portage, but a 4 km portage isn't worth the labor - only the cargo would be
humped across.  Hope someone checks those possible canals on the ground
soon.


The Chicle Trail [Belize Pass] 100 km:

      The east half of any transpeninsular portage through Lago Peten Itza
was the Chicle Trail, used by "many traders who travelled between his lands
and the coast (of Belize)", as the reigning Canek of Tayasal reported to
Cortez.  It is a well-documented Postclassic to recent 103.5 km long route,
which linked a chain of both Postclassic and Classic sites between Lago
Peten Itza and the Belize River.  The Chicle Trail is the most efficient
route around large bajos and low mountains east of Lago Peten Itza.  John
H. Caddy referred to it as the "Belize Pass".
      Cortez first documented the Chicle Trail's existence.  Canek, the
ruler of Tayasal, explained to Cortez "that by going on some three leagues
I would reach a place where the lake gave way to dry land, (at El Remate)
and to reach the coast I could follow the road which led from directly
opposite his town" instead of "a hard one over steep and rocky mountains".
To bring along his horses Cortez chose the steep and rocky one south to
Nito.  The horses all died on the trail.
      Numerous Spanish entradas followed the Chicle Trail to Peten Itza,
since it was part of a direct and easy approach from the Spanish base at
Bacalar via the Belize River.  Teobert Maler followed it in 1904 and 1905,
carefully sketch-mapped it (though on his map he mislabeled his distances
as leagues when they were miles), and discovered the ruins of Yaxha.
Watching the skyline as his canoe glided across the lake, he noticed
several bumps, the tips of temples breaking the line of the canopy.  Prior
to Yaxha, scientists had always been led to sites by locals or chicleros.

      From the landing at Reforma, on the east end of Lago Peten Itza, the
Chicle Trail went along the south side of Laguna Salpeten [Zacpeten,
Sakpeten "White Island"] and the north side of Laguna Macanche, both with
Postclassic town sites.  Just south of Reforma is Ixlu, the eastern
lakeport of the Maya from the Classic through Postclassic.  Its Late
Postclassic name was Saklamakhal.  The little Rio Ixlu is canoeable for
about 2 km to El Cruce.
      The neck of land between Lago Peten Itza and Laguna Salpeten is low
in two places, at La Reforma and at El Cruce.  Salpeten is 6 km lower than
Peten Itza's average surface elevation of 110 m.  A canal in the Classic
would have filled the smaller lake to the larger's level.  It should have
left a recognizable "bathtub ring", which would be a way to check if there
once was a canal between the lakes.
      The ruins of Zacpeten, on a peninsula connected to the north shore of
Laguneta Salpeten, suggest that the Postclassic trail followed the north
shore of that lake.  During the Late Classic the narrow neck of the
peninsula was cut through and strengthened with walls and parapets.
Zacpeten flourished in both the Late Classic and again in the Late
Postclassic for refugees from Mayapan.  Projectile points in the moat show
that the Kowoj people of Zacpeten had to fight off attackers at least once
(Pugh).
      On nearby Laguna Macanche, Yalain was a Postclassic center allied
with the Itza in Tayasal.  The Yalain and Kowoj seem to have been
uncomfortable neighbors.  The surface of Laguneta Macanche is 56 km higher
than Laguna Salpeten, and the intervening neck is hilly, so a past canal
between the lakes seems impossible.
      The Chicle Trail passed between the first two of the four Julekis
(mountain ponds), immediately climbed onto a ridge, ran right through ruins
of Muralla de Leon "Lion Ramparts", and descended to the shore of the
largest "julek".  Up to 4 meters high, the defensive wall of Muralla'
follows the rim of a small plateau for 1.4 km.  It was a fortified town
that spanned the Terminal Preclassic through Postclassic periods (Rice
1981).
      The Chicle Trail was the primary 19th century trade route east from
Flores, and it carefully follows the easiest route topographically.  Since
Muralla' commands a position right on it, it seems probable that the trail
exactly follows a much older regional trail, one dating perhaps to the
Preclassic.  Modern Route 13 from Flores to Belize generally follows the
wet season alternate to the Chicle Trail and has made the older route
obsolete.
      From Muralla de Leon the trail swung east, past the foot of El Cerro
de Hulek.  16 km from La Reforma, a traveler would need to swing northeast
at Campamento San Clemente to avoid bajos.  There is a small clearing shown
on the El Remate 1;50,000 quad at about the right location for Campamento
San Clemente, Lat 16-59-00N-Lon 89-33-30W.   By following a terrace along
the north side of Bajo de la Maquina, the Chicle Trail avoided the swamps.
It passed through El Gallo along the way.   At Paso de Ixtinta, next to a
site of the same name at the southwest corner of Lago Yaxha, the Chicle
Trail shifted to water travel.
      Lakes Yaxha, "Green Water", and Sacnab, "Clear Lake" (lit. White
Water Lily), were connected by a narrow channel in the past to form a 10.5
km long canoe trail.  The modern causeway to Yaxha's ruins has severed the
channel, but is easily portaged.  Per Stuart and Houston, Yaxha and Sacnab
[atl. Sakha] are the actual Classic Period names.  The huge Classic Period
city of Yaxha (third largest ruin in modern Guatemala, after Tikal and
Preclassic El Mirador) sprawled along the north shore.  The ease and speed
of 10.5 km of lake travel would have compensated for time lost transferring
loads from porters to canoes and back.
      Having canoed the entire lake chain to the far end of Laguneta
Champoxte in 1990, I would consider only Yaxha and Sacnab to have been a
valuable canoe route in the past.  With aluminum canoes and no heavy loads,
we easily carried and paddled through all the lakes except tiny Lagunita
Colorada.  Laguneta Lancaja is only 1.4 km long, too short for traders to
bother with.  3 km long Laguneta Champoxte is marginal.  It would have been
as time consuming to locate, load, and unload dugouts as for porters to
just carry past L. Lancaja, and probably L. Champoxte as well.
      A 19th century mule trail generally followed the south shore of the
lakes, but stayed on drier ground 1 to 2 km south of Laguna Yaxha.  As
cargo went downlake by canoe, the unladen mules got a rest trotting along
the south shore, before meeting the boats at the far end.  Human porters
may have done the same in the Classic, though probably by a north shore
trail through the city of Yaxha.
      During the Postclassic, Topoxte["Ramon Tree"], Paxte, and Cante
Islands in Laguna Yaxha held small but fine temples in a mass of densely
packed houses.  Topoxte and Cante are only islands at average or higher
lake levels.  At low levels they became peninsulas, connected to the south
shore by muddy bars.  All the Late Postclassic towns that Cortez saw
between Itzamkanac and Tayasal were fortified, either by location or walls.
Most were sited on islands or peninsulas, and those not so fortunate were
defended by wooden walls.  On the east coast of Yucatan, Ichpaatun and
Tulum were completely enclosed by stone ramparts.  Xelha and Xcaret [Pole]
had fortified refuges.  It was not a peaceful period in Maya history.
      The dense array of cities throughout the region in the Classic
implies a network of roads and trails connecting them.  Though the Chicle
Trail is certainly the same as the late Postclassic trail recommended to
Cortez by the Canek of Tayasal, it was probably only one of many Classic
Period trails crisscrossing the region.  It may not have even been the
major one.  From the location of Yaxha, it seems likely that the main lake
path followed the ridge along the north shore in the Classic.  Other trails
would have fanned out to Tikal, Nakum, and Naranjo.From Paso del Caribe at
the east end of Laguna Sacnab, the Chicle Trail skirted Bajos la Pimienta
and Gavilan, both of which sometimes flooded in the wet season.   25 km
from Laguna Sacnab it crossed the Rio Mopan from Planchon de Piedra (on the
northern outskirts of Melchor De Mencos [Fallabon]) to Benque Viejo del
Carmen.  The Chicle Trail followed the ridgeline for 12 km to El Cayo de
San Ignacio [Cayo for short].  In the Late Classic a trail probably went
directly to Xunantunich instead of crossing the river.
      The citadel of Cahal Pech, possibly allied with Caracol in the late
Classsic, overlooks the site of modern Cayo.  From about 850BC until
1000AD, Cahal Pech guarded the head of navigation for the largest pitpans.
Cayo was as far as the big boats could go.  The Macal is too shallow
upstream for more than small to medium sized canoes, and the Mopan has
several ledges between Actunkan and Branch Mouth.  Xunantunich, a late
Classic period dependency of Naranjo, similarly overlooked Actunkan, the
probable head of navigation for medium sized canoes on the Mopan.  The
arrangement of Cahal Pech and Xunantunich is reminiscent of rival Burgs
Katz and Maus on the Rhine, or of Forts George and Niagara guarding rival
portages past Niagara Falls and Gorge on the Ontario-New York border.
      The Postclassic trail probably veered off the Chicle Trail for the
last few kilometers.  After crossing the Mopan, the logical route to Tipu
[Negroman] is south along a valley to the Rio Macal.  Tipu was the
Postclassic head of navigation on the Macal.  The absolute upstream limit
of canoe travel upstream is in the Macal Canyon at Black Rock, 5 km above
Negroman.  Though modern rafts and kayaks run Class 3-5 Macal Canyon, it
would have been impassable for past paddlers.
      A second possible Classic Period trail, paralleling the Chicle Trail
east of Yaxha, may have gone northeast from Laguna Sacnab for 12 km along
the ridge between Bajos la Pimienta and la Pita to Naranjo*.  From there
Chunhuitz is 6 km northeast, and Bullet Tree Fall on the Rio Mopan another
10 km east through a low place in the hills.  This 38 km route hits the
Mopan below the last rapids, and is slightly longer than the Chicle Trail
to Xunantunich but slightly shorter than to Cahal Pech.  A well maintained
trail from Laguna Sacnab through Naranjo to Bullet Tree Fall would have
been competitive with other portages to the Belize River system.
      *Ftnt [Naranjo [possible Classic name Saal] held its own against
neighbors who were some of the largest of all Maya city-states in the
Classic Period.  Beginning in AD 693 under Lady Six Sky and her son
K'ak'Tiliw Chan Chaak, Naranjo snapped up neighboring kingdoms, including
Yaxha.]
      When the bajos along the Chicle Trail flooded, 19th century travelers
took an entirely different route, much longer and wet too, but seldom
impassable. The alternate route went southeast from Flores through karst
hills and open savannah.  Near Laguna Oquevix it turned northeast, roughly
paralleled Arroyo Sal Si Puedes, and then followed the north side of the
Rio Mopan flood plain past the Tziquin Tzacan [Tikinchacan] site.  At the
height of the wet season the trail here was sometimes waist deep in water,
but with good footing.  From Tziquin Tzacan, modern Route 13 mostly follows
the old trail to the Rio Mopan crossing at Planchon de Piedra.  By this
route it was about 145 km from Flores to Cayo, more than 40 km longer than
the Chicle Trail.


Chicle Trail, 103.5 km to Cayo, Belize (or 99.5 to Tipu, or 95.5 to
Actunkan).

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